AT last it is beginning to dawn on people that Formula One is boring.

A drop in popularity, which has seen motor racing overtaken by tennis as the second most popular sport in Europe behind football, sparked promises of big changes.

Ideas about drivers switching teams and cars weighted down to end the dreary supremacy of Ferrari were mooted but the final decision was to make no changes to race day. There was something about a different format to the couple of days before the race but the details were as dull as the sport.

Even if Formula One chiefs had brought in sweeping changes it would make no difference because it will always look like a convoy of cars incapable of overtaking, and sound like the air being let out of a thousand tightly pulled balloons.